Bioremediation strategies of palm oil mill effluent and landfill leachate using microalgae cultivation: An approach contributing towards environmental sustainability

• Main Authors: Ahmad, Imran, Ibrahim, Natasha Nabila Binti, Abdullah, Norhayati, Koji, Iwamoto, Mohamad, Shaza Eva, Khoo, Kuan Shiong, Cheah, Wai Yan, Ling, Tau Chuan, Show, Pau Loke
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier Science Inc 2023
• Subjects: QD Chemistry
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/38257/

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is defined as the wastewater that contains high concentrations of organ-ics, nutrients and oil and grease generated from the production process of palm oil. Therefore, proper discharge and management of POME is important to avoid deleterious impact on the environment. In fact, solid waste generation is a precursor for its disposal issues as most of the solid waste generated in developing nations is dumped into landfills. This has led to the threat posed by the generation of landfill leachate (LL). LL is a complex dark coloured liquid consisting of organic matter, inorganic sub-stances, trace elements and xenobiotics. Hence, it is essential to effectively treat the landfill leachate be-fore discharging it to avoid contamination of soil, surface & groundwater bodies. Conventional treatment methods comprises of physical, biological and chemical treatment, however, microalgal-based treatment could also be incorporated. Furthermore, with the benefits offered by microalgae in valorisation, the ap-plication of microalgae in POME and leachate treatment as well as biofuel production, is considerably viable. This paper provides an acumen of the microalgae-based treatment of POME and LL, integrated with biofuel production in a systematic and critical manner. The pollutants assimilation from wastewater and CO2 biosequestration are discussed for environmental protection. Cultivation systems for wastew-ater treatment with simultaneous biomass production and its valorisation, are summarised. The study aims to provide insight to industrial stakeholders on economically viable and environmentally sustain-able treatment of wastewaters using microalgae, and eventually contributing to the circular bioeconomy and environmental sustainability.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.